Celebrities Behaving Badly: Snaps, Texts, and Vlogging While Driving

What does it take to become a celebrity nowadays? Long gone are the days when a studio would craft your entire image and only release sanctioned information about a carefully constructed star persona.

In today’s digital age, the path to celebrity is murky and based upon the numbers of followers and likes one gains on social media. The notion of constructing an image and curating your life for social media is still there — only now, it’s masked behind an air of not trying too hard and leading a carefree, laidback lifestyle.

This combined with the desire to constantly gain followers and clicks can drive today’s celebrities to reckless behavior that gets passed along directly to the teens who idolize them. Some of their most dangerous behavior can be behind the wheel of a car, encouraging or displaying distracted driving, which could be fatal for both them and your children.

DWV: Driving while Vlogging

Odds are some of your teen’s favorite stars are not the traditional movie stars you see on the cover of People magazine, but instead social media influencers who have built their following through Instagram, Snapchats, vlogs, and more. Often, they are teens themselves and don’t practice common sense in their efforts to post new, eye-catching content. What’s worse — they may actively be telling your kids that there is nothing wrong or unsafe about distracted driving.

In this video, YouTube vlogger MsJessicaFacee talks at length about how vlogging while driving is not illegal and even admits to texting while driving (treating the whole thing like a joke). Not only is she exhibiting dangerous behavior, but she’s actively encouraging others to do it as well.

Model and Instagram star Nina Palangetic regularly posts Instagram videos while driving. She came under fire for posting one where she not only admitted to her dangerous behavior but threatened to punch police officers in the face if they dared to pull her over for her reckless driving.

Even if YouTubers aren’t engaging in the dangerous behavior themselves, they could inadvertently be encouraging it. Logan Paul (who himself has exhibited extremely poor judgment in other departments) often films while in the car, but he usually has someone else with him, if not an entire camera crew. This could still result in distracted driving, and even if it’s safe, the videos might encourage others to record video while behind the wheel. Even if a celeb is taking every precaution, they should make that known to fans so they don’t try to emulate the reckless driving behavior.

With that said, there are influencers who take distracted driving seriously. Beauty blogger Ashley Waxman Bakshi shared a video that left many fans fearing she had been involved in a fatal crash after blogging while driving. The video turned out to be an anti-distracted driving PSA and a valuable lesson many of her fellow vloggers could take to heart.

Don’t Keep up with the Kardashians

Kim Kardashian famously came under fire for posting a Snapchat showing how empty her side of the road was — while driving! Kim’s not the only member of her family who drives recklessly– her step-father Caitlyn Jenner was involved in a car crash in Malibu that resulted in another driver’s death. Jenner was texting at the time of the accident. The behavior doesn’t stop there. Sister Kendall Jenner posted a video on her Instagram that featured her singing along to Avril Lavigne while driving in traffic.

Like it or not, the Kardashians are highly influential. In this case, engaging in similar reckless driving practices could result in death or serious injury. Remind your kids that a) they should never be making a social media post while behind the wheel, and b) Avril Lavigne is so early 2000s.

Many fans objected to Kim and Kendall’s posts, reminding them that this behavior is actually illegal in their home state of California, and you should take care to remind your teens the same.

Too Late Now to Say Sorry

Perhaps the worst offender of them all is Justin Bieber. Back in 2011, he partnered with DriveSafe to participate in an anti-texting while driving PSA. Since then, he has seem to forgotten his own message. His speeding and other bad behavior while driving has resulted in numerous charges of reckless driving from officials everywhere from Miami to Canada to England. In Los Angeles, he received traffic violations for speeding (over 100 mph!), while in Miami he was brought up on charges for reckless driving for drag-racing while he was under the influence of alcohol.

Role Models Do Exist

It’s not all bad though — many celebrities have worked to combat distracted driving. As far back as 2010, Oprah has worked to combat distracted driving in teens and adults alike, launching an no texting and driving campaign.

Many television shows, like Glee, have worked anti-distracted driving PSAs into their storytelling to remind teenagers of the very real life consequences of such behavior through tragic storylines involving their favorite fictional characters. Most recently, Darren Criss partnered with AT&T’s “It Can Wait” campaign to urge everyone to save all texts, calls, and anything related to one’s phone for when you are off the road.

When it becomes to activity behind the wheel, celebrities are often bad role models. Some are doing their best to combat negative messages conveyed by their own example. Urge your child to be their own person and not follow the whims of celebrity trends, which can include reckless and distracted driving.

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